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Retiring AD Tom Osborne embraces all the leadership qualities that are still considered timeless.

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10 Qualities Make T.O. as Relevant as Ever

By NU Athletic Communications

| 12/30/2012

Randy York’s N-Sider

Last week, Forbes Magazine
published a major article that separates the dreamers from the entrepreneurs, and
the bottom line was this: However you see yourself and whatever age you may be,
you have to remind yourself of the leader you are and of the leader you would
like to become. The contributing writer then credits research for defining the top 10 qualities that every good leader should possess and learn to
emphasize. As I read through all 10 qualities, I realized something important: At
age 75, Tom Osborne, who will retire as Nebraska’s athletic director
on Jan. 1, meets the criteria for
every quality. To me, that makes him as relevant in his retirement as he ever was as a teacher, a coach, a Congressman or an athletic director. Using
past columns and current blogs, The
N-Sider has decided to define Osborne’s relevance in each of the following 10 up-to-date categories:

QUALITY
1: HONESTY

This principleis easy to reinforce because John
Wooden helped guide Osborne as both a coach and a man.I hadthe
privilege to interview both legendary leaders in the same week nearly three years
ago and learned why they were friends and in philosophical
alignment. Both are very open about their faith. Both have a great ability to
listen and care about others. Both believe that honesty is critical to be
successful as teachers, coaches and mentors – roles both embraced with all
of their heart and soul. Don’t just take my word for it though. Read an account from Omaha 4½ years ago when Huskers honored Osborne and called him The 'Ultimate Boy Scout' because he’s all about duty,
service and honesty, not to mention his penchant to “Be Prepared” in every daily task he takes on.

QUALITY
2: ABILITY TO DELEGATE

There was a purpose behind my calling Osborne the
dean of Nebraska's 'Fortunate 500'. Coach Osborne doesn't just write books about lessons in
leadership and life. He lives by the same wisdom he writes about. He's the kind
of leader who stays inside the box when it's the right thing to do, but he's
more than willing to go outside the box when he thinks it's required. The
way he's resurrected Nebraska's athletic facilities is testimony to his
leadership. With systematic innovation, he's led the charge to build the new
Dick and Peg Herman Family Student Life Complex and, at the same time, give
Nebraska football and basketball extreme makeovers. His leadership also has
benefited almost every other sport with meaningful improvements that enhance
recruiting. He hasn’t done it by
himself. He’s done it through his innate ability to delegate.

QUALITY
3: COMMUNICATION

I wish all Nebraska fans could have seen and heard
Osborne when he was the keynote speaker for one
last legendary breakfast
in Omaha. Some attendees have
been listening to Osborne speak at such breakfasts for more than four decades.
Others saw him for the first time. All connected with every word he said. Again,
don’t take my word for it. Consider the kudos that came from current Nebraska
male and female student-athletes earlier this month when they saluted
their athletic director during Finals Week.Björn Barrefors, the 2012 Big Ten
Conference decathlon champion, is destined to become the first Nebraska
student-athlete to receive Academic All-American recognition four times during
his career. “Coach Osborne has been so inspiring for me that I want to become
more like him,” Barrefors told me. “He always does exactly what he says he’s going
to do. He does that better than anyone else I’ve ever seen or met. What he’s
shown me is you can be wildly successful and yet still hold onto the values
that are important to you – like humility. He really is the best leader I’ve
ever seen.”

QUALITY 4: SENSE OF
HUMOR

There
are countless examples to reinforce this specific trait, but I have two personal
favorites that fit perfectly into this category. The first goes back nearly
four years ago in an N-Sider entitled Good
Reasons Behind Tom-Foolery and Bo-Jinks. Tom, of course, is Osborne,
and Bo is Pelini. You have to read the column to get the full gist of Osborne
visiting the football office to inform former linebacker
coach Mike Ekeler about something he did when he recruited Will Compton – something that another Big 12 school had written the
NCAA about Nebraska’s apparent
violation of a rather obscure rule involving extra recruiting enticements. It’s
a funny story, but no more hilarious than the one Nebraska baseball coach Darin
Erstad delivered when he roasted and toastedOsborne for a remark when Erstad wanted to switch scholarships after his junior season. Erstad’s story ranks
highon the laugh meter, and Osborne
was a good sportfor other Nebraska staffers who honored him in similar fashion.

QUALITY 5: CONFIDENCE

Confidence is a pivotal part of why I call Tom OsborneTHE
standard for coaches and ADs. I’ve
never seen anyone so humble walk into a room and command it, even when the
sound is silence. Osborne doesn’t have to say anything to get anyone’s
attention. He radiates respect, and he’s earned it because of the way he sees
the world, operates in it and manages to stay above the fray. In politics, he
would not compromise his principles, and he would not change his position on
something just to gain extra percentage points in a media poll. I worked in
Corporate America for more than 22 years and in my opinion, there are very few
leaders with Coach’s commanding combination of confidence, competitive drive
and character-based leadership.

QUALITY 6: COMMITMENT

There
is no question what N-Sider captures the essence of Tom Osborne’s
definition for commitment. We wrote how Nebraska
fans could help T.O. ride off into the sunsetbefore he joined Bo Pelini and 29 seniors in their final
Tunnel Walk in the regular-season finale against Minnesota. Former Husker
quarterback Steve Taylor said
Osborne kept coming back to Nebraska to make things right. “Coach Osborne reminds me of the lead character in the movie
Shane, who keeps riding off into the
sunset until someone needs him, so he keeps coming back to save lives and help
people who need help. That’s what Tom did at Nebraska. Like Shane, he came
back, put the program in his hands and revitalized it. That’s what he’s done
all his adult life – keeps coming back to the people he loves, the program he
loves, the university he loves and the state he loves.” Judging by the hundreds
of responses we received on this column, those fans love Tom Osborne, too.

QUALITY 7: POSITIVE
ATTITUDE

We
have an N-Sider that accurately reflects this trait, and we go straight to
the Osborne family to depict the importance of a constantly positive attitude. Mike
Osborne describes his dad as tough but giving. He mentions how his dad
went for
two in the 1983 National Championship (1984
Orange Bowl) when a tie would have secured his first national title; how he
co-founded the TeamMates
Mentoring Program after witnessing the dissolution of the American family in
his recruiting trips over the years; why he passed up two NFL head coaching offers to remain an influence in
more impressionable young people’s lives; how he attended Seminary while playing pro football; why
he helped former players,
including loaning them money and expecting nothing in return; how he received scathing criticism from the national
media during the Lawrence Phillips controversy
yet hoped for a better outcome; how he refused pay greater than the highest paid academic position at UNL while
he was head coach; why he reads his
Bible at the beginning of every day and tithes to the church.

QUALITY 8: CREATIVITY

Tom Osborne has been so creative
for so long and without fanfare that you tend to forget all the new wrinkles
for which he is responsible in college athletics ... the I- formation in football,
plus strength and conditioning training and a full-fledged walk-on program mainstreaming
its way into an athletic department. All three innovative solutions came early in his career yet
remain foremost in the grand scheme of things. Nebraska Associate AD Jamie Williams says Osborne has been
such a productive Renaissance Man that now
is the time for "The Sage" to laugh even morethan he already does.Let’s also give credit to Bob Devaney, who was savvy enough to see Osborne’s progressive-minded
strengths. That's why he hand-picked Osborne and empowered him to do whatever he needed to
separate Nebraska from other NCAA institutions. All Osborne has done is to help enable
Nebraska's unparalleled academic success, plus the Huskers' leadership in life
skills, nutrition and athletic research. All are the result of Osborne's
relentless push to be a pioneer in support areas that connect total-person
development with consistent performance and overall innovation.

QUALITY 9: INTUITION

We all know
there’s no roadmap to lead a team through uncharted waters, so Fortune Magazine is right. The higher
the risk, the higher the pressure, and that’s where your natural intuition has
to kick in. Osborne’s first national championship team in 1994 is a classic case in
point. When Tommie Frazier had blood
clots, Osborne turned to a walk-on quarterback from Goodland, Kan. And Brook
Berringer's influence went far beyondthe masterful performances he put
together on the road to a moon over Miami. Berringer’s power and spirit on that
team carried over to third-team walk-on quarterback Matt Turman, who started at K-State and kept the Huskers’ unbeaten
season going despite playing with a collapsed lung. Osborne never has allowed
his name to be put on Memorial Stadium’s artificial turf even though it is
officially called Tom Osborne Field. When Osborne took down a bronze bust and other personal
salutes to him inside the Athletic Department when he became AD, employees
understood. Fortunately, the statue in front of the North Stadium Complex was
never moved because Berringer is a big part of it. Check out Osborne and Ron Brown
remembering Berringer 15 years after a game that showed the nation
why Nebraska could still win a national championship with its backup
quarterback. Then take the time to watch Brown's video installments as well as
Osborne's remembrances of Berringer. Let’s add one more intuitiveinfluence that connects Osborne/Brown not only to Nebraska football, but college
football: Husker
Captain Stan Parker, who helped bring pregame prayer to the fieldwhen Nebraska once hosted Oklahoma. Osborne's own faithmatches up well with his intuition. Who will ever forget his legendary role that moved Nebraska out of its historical roots and into the Big Ten, the nation's oldest intercollegiate athletic conference? In a game of big boy chess, Osborne asked an important question and when the answer wasn't clear, his principles enabled him to use his intuition to produce a solid long-term solution that fits Nebraska athletically, academically and culturally.

QUALITY 10:ABILITY TO INSPIRE

As a Hall-of-Fame football coach, a three-term Congressman and an
athletic director who squeezed 15 years of accomplishments into a little more
than five years, Osborne’s solid values have never fallen out of fashion. His
optimism, hard work and strength of character are timeless and enduring. He can
spot talent and nurture it. He’s equally effective as a strategist and a
tactician. He doesn’t judge people when they fail or fall flat on their face.
He analyzes how they handle failure, how they show resilience and how they see
and reinforce strength in others. He takes a genuine interest in every level of
those who work around him and is the best listener of any leader I’ve ever
seen. He’s a staunch believer that everyone’s work matters and each
contribution is bigger than you or your salary. Because of all of that, it
should come as no surprise that the N-Sider offers up two stories this week
that graphically paint portraits of Tom Osborne’s remarkable ability to inspire
players even after they’ve fallen so far, a rescue seems like a long shot. Take the time to read Against
All Odds: The Budge Porter Storyand Power
of Redemption: A Big Osborne Legacyfor Ricky Simmons, the
second leading receiver on Nebraska’s 1983 NCAA record-setting Scoring
Explosion team. Porter, a quadriplegic, and Simmons, a drug addict who went to
prison three times, inspired Osborne, and more importantly, you’ll learn how Osborne
still inspires them.